1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to semiconductor dies, also commonly referred to as "chips." It is particularly directed to the fabrication of a capacitor on a semiconductor die, the term dice including not only singulated dies but also partial wafers and entire wafers from which dies may be separated.
2. State of the Art
Circuit boards and other carrier substrates or platforms, both single- and multi-level, are employed to mechanically support and electrically connect both active devices, such as semiconductor dies, as well as passive components, such as resistors, capacitors and inductors. Conventional chip on board (C.O.B.) assemblies typically include discrete components of both classes, e.g., resistors, capacitors, and inductors, as well as various solid state "chips" or "dies" hard wired, plugged, soldered, ball-bonded or otherwise electrically connected to a conductor network carried by a platform such as a card, board or other substrate. In the prior art, discrete capacitors as well as resistors and inductors are often required to be placed on the platform in combination with adjacent, associated semiconductor dice, for example in the construction of a single in-line memory module (SIMM). With the increased circuit densities required by ever-faster processors and larger memories, due to a generally fixed board or platform area, commonly termed "real estate" in the semiconductor industry, the use of discrete passive components is viewed as an undesirable but hitherto necessary waste of real estate which could otherwise be applied to better and higher uses. The only exception to the requirement for a discrete capacitor known to the inventors is the fabrication of a capacitor on the board to which chips or dies may be attached.
It should be noted that the discrete capacitors referenced above are chip- or die-level capacitors serving as protective, noise-reducing gateways between the die and the remainder of the circuit in the assembly. Such capacitors are to be distinguished from the cell capacitors employed in dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cells, each cell of which includes a transistor (MOSFET) and capacitor. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,547,063; 5,457,065; 5,459,094 and 5,459,095 illustrate various constructions which provide capacitance for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cells. In each instance, the capacitor construction is integrated into the cell itself. As noted, such capacitors simply provide the storage requirement of the cell. U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,536 similarly discloses the construction of planar storage capacitors in association with the cells of a DRAM chip. The method disclosed involves a sequence of deposition and etching steps which add both electrode and dielectric layers to chips constructed from inorganic oxides.
Semiconductor chips or dice, are conventionally fabricated by a series of material deposition, removal and conversion steps to selectively add, remove and alter the state of silicon and various metals to form the end-product die. For example, materials may be deposited upon, removed from, or converted to a different structure on a region of a substrate, either to form conductive structures on that level (such as circuit traces or bond pads), to form insulative, dielectric or passivating structures, or to penetrate beneath and form inter-level conductive elements (such as contacts or vias) or active component segments (n- and p-doping by diffusion or ion implantation) of the semiconductor devices residing in the die. Stated simplistically from another perspective, a semiconductor die may be viewed as a stack of layers, any of which may function as a substrate for adjacent layers. Typically, layers containing active (transistors, diodes, memory cells) or passive (capacitors, resistors) electronic components are separated by dielectric layers to avoid electrical shorts.
There remains a need for a simple, low cost technique for incidentally constructing a capacitor on or within a die to replace the chip capacitor of a SIMM board or other assembly having a comparable need for a capacitive or other passive component in association with the die, and supplied in the prior art by a discrete structure connected to the same platform as the die.